Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Updates on the Shale Revolution

1. Wall Street Journal -- "Shale-gas production is spurring construction of plants that make
chemicals, plastics, fertilizer, steel and other products. A report
issued earlier this month by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC estimated that
such investments could create a million U.S. manufacturing jobs over the
next 15 years.

Even foreign manufacturers are joining in. Low U.S. electricity and
natural gas costs were a factor in the decision by Brazil's Santana
Textiles to build a $180 million denim plant now under construction in
Edinburg, Texas. Santana initially considered putting the factory in
Mexico but found that electricity costs would be 30% lower in Texas."

2.Oil jobs the new gold as thousands join N.D. rush -- "Williston, with a population of around 20,000, was a quiet North
Dakota town, surrounded by oil fields that had been in decline for
decades. Now, it is the heart of the Bakken, a new oil play that has
abruptly woken one of the sleepiest states in the Union, transforming
North Dakota into an energy heavyweight. It has also made Williston, whose surrounding county now has the lowest
unemployment rate in the entire country, a new destination for America’s
jobless, homeless and would-be rich."

3.Ohio sand turns to gold as drilling boom comes to Buckeye State -- "Rob Sidley is sitting on a gold mine, thanks to Mother Nature. His family-owned company produces the special sand needed for the drilling boom in Ohio’s deep layer of Utica shale. The sand is perfect for the hydraulic fracturing process — or
fracking — which uses force to open cracks in the shale and free up
natural gas, oil and other lucrative products.

Nationally, the market for American fracking sands quad­rupled from 2000 to 2009." (HT: Energy Tomorrow)

4. Associated Press — "The United States has record supplies of natural
gas and plenty of reasons to promote natural-gas powered cars, but so
far consumers, manufacturers and fuel suppliers haven't shown much interest.

Now,
a major natural gas developer's plans to vastly increase the number of
truck stops that offer liquid natural gas could help boost its use in
the vehicles that burn the most fuel, while promoting its availability
to a wider market. Lots of natural gas is available, if U.S.
drivers decide to use it. In just a few years, domestic natural gas
supplies have increased by trillions of cubic feet through shale finds,
boosting the supply to the point where plans are in place to export part
of the overflow."

Gee, weren't we just reading about lower gas prices a few posts ago? And, coal is relatively stable.

Wind and solar will never be significant parts of the energy picture, in fact wind, at least, would drop dead without subsidies, so that's what Mr. Buffett is after. Say what you will about him, he is NOT stupid.

That, and access to other things provided by large areas of land required by solar & wind.